Jim's shooting journal

[Jimgabelbauer]

Hi everyone, my name is Jim. I'm 25 and just started shooting IDPA and USPSA at the end of January this year. I have been reading alot of posts on this forum and many of the others, but have never posted. There is so much to learn on here!! Anyways, the first few months of shooting I used my glock 19. I shot the IDPA classifier around the end of Feb and scored 176. Just last week I got a G34. Im hoping to get warren sevigny competition sights in the next couple of weeks..hate the factory sights!

I recently got Brian's book and learned a lot from it and have started to read it again. Two weeks ago I also got steve andersons dry fire book and matt burketts dvds vol 1-3. I've been working on correcting my draw (getting my LH up at the same time as Rh, doing just the dry grip) and getting a more consistent grip on the gun (just to name a few things). About a month ago I started working on shooting 5 shot groups at 25 yards with my G19. When I first started I was shooting an average of 10 in groups (horrible I know) but after a couple of weeks of going 2x a week, usually shooting 50 rounds I got my average groups down to around 6 in. Last week, the day after I bought my 34 I worked on groups with it. After 150 rounds I was getting an average of 4-5 in groups and even had one 3 shot group that was an inch! (great for me )I'm planning on going this week, so I'll see how I do with it now that Ive dry fired it quite a bit and feel more comfortable with the new gun.

Today I went to a range and worked on press-outs,(no holsters, drawing etc at this range) shooting at a few pieces of paper the size of the A zone, at 15 yards. My goal was to try to figure out what I need to see to get good hits at that distance. I got around 80-90% hits in the Azone, but I noticed I seem to still shoot a little to the left ..especially when I'm shooting quickly. It gave me good feedback for what I need to be seeing, and also what I need to work on with my trigger. I seem to have trouble in matches with trying to shoot faster than I can see, especially with my second shot. Up until now Ive been dryfiring about a half hour per day 4 days a week, but now I want to step it up to at least an hour per day. Tomorrow I'm shooting a four stage IDPA match and want to see what I need to see on all of my shots. My goal is to shoot 20 pd or less. Last Monday I shot 35pd.

[Jimgabelbauer]

So I shot the IDPA match today.. well part of it. We got rained out, but we were able to shoot two of the four stages. I feel like I did the best I have ever done. I shot 9 pts down, 5 of which were on a quick drop turner which I missed one shot. I definitely saw what I needed to see the whole time, other than the drop turner. I don't even remember seeing the sights on it. I think I just tried to hit it too fast. I feel like I've made a big jump in ability, just being more patient with the sights. Another thing I did which I hadn't thought about before (I read about it today on the "what was it that took your game to the next level" thread on here) was as I was visualizing the stage, I was visualizing/making mental note of what I should be seeing for specific shots.. and it really made a HUGE difference.

Also before the match I was actually visualizing myself shooting and following through on the second shot. It worked, because I shot what I visualized without actually thinking about it while I was doing it. In previous matches I would shoot a zero/alpha on the first shot, and then just shoot again and transition to the next target (visually) before or while I was firing that second shot. I didn't mean to do it that way, I was rushing. I can't wait until the next uspsa match so I can utilize this. I think I will do WAY better. I also worked on dry fire today, 10 minutes of just trigger control, and about a half hour of timed drills. Tomorrow I plan on shooting the dot torture drill at the local indoor range.

[Jimgabelbauer]

Wednesday 4-27-

I went to the indoor range and shot dot torture at 5 yards, got 45 out of 50. my weaknesses were the weak hand shooting, and strong hand shooting. I think I need to work on just holding the gun out there with one hand only to build strength, the gun wobbles alot!! Before work I also dry fired using Ben Stoegers 15 minute routine, I spent about half an hour on it though working on some of the drills a little longer. My par times are around novice or a little lower.

After work I ran through dry fire drills from steve andersons book in addition to some table reloads and just working on trigger control. I did this for about an hour and a half. Also, I usually dryfire for about 20 minutes, take a break until I feel ready and then do it again. I try to practice these with minimal tension, and slowly until I have the form good and then push it. Sometimes I work with the par timer sometimes not.

[Jimgabelbauer]

The past few nights I've been reading quite a few of the different range diaries on here. Such a great resource. I especially enjoyed/learned a lot by reading ben stoegers. His website is also such a great resource for information and motivation! I've already learned so much from him.

Last night I was looking through my dry fire book and picked out 2-3 drills that I thought I was the worst at, and decided to work on them for a little longer period of time (20 minutes or so). The main one was #8 from the anderson book. My par time was 10.7. Very bad! lol so I started out with some slow reps, then started with the par timer and worked my way down. By the way, I really make sure I'm seeing everything I need to see and incorporating any new techniques I've learned. So with this drill I was working on quite a few different things. I have been making sure to get my left hand up at the same time as my right, in the right position. "Pinch and roll" with my left hand. Making sure I don't move my head when drawing. I'm left eye dominant so I make sure and get the gun up to my left eye instead of moving my head. I've been working on that for 3 weeks now and its pretty much automatic. I just try to make sure it doesn't creep back in. I was reading some of beyond fundamentals last night, and I realized when I was reloading that I wasn't going to the same spot every time with my RH. So I worked on that for a little while b4 and during the drill also. Anyway, I got my par time down to 9.9. I probably could have gone faster, but I felt I was doing it really smooth and seeing everything I need to see.

The other thing I worked on in df was moving from one box to the other and shooting on the move. Did it slow and made sure I was getting my feet to do what I wanted them to. In between I popped in the burkett dvd just to make sure I was entering and exiting boxes correctly. I also watched some video of Sevigny shooting USPSA. Amazing movement skills!

Found out last minute that I wouldn't have to work and was able to shoot a 5 stage USPSA match. I did great! (for me) A few of the things I had worked on in the past couple days were really useful! One of the stages had us starting with the empty gun on barrel, load from mag pouch. I had never practiced this until I did stoeger's 15 min df plan, so I was pretty confident about it and executed it smoothly. We had a stage where we shot four targets, strong hand 2 rds ea, reload/move , four targets weak hand 2 rds each. They were both around 15 yds away. I really surprised myself and shot all Alphas on the weak hand and all alphas/ 2 c on the strong hand. This last weekend I was worked probably half an hour on shooting on the move. I've never done this until now, unless a stage required it. But two of the stages we shot had spots where there were fairly close targets <10 yds where I knew I could take them faster on the move. I did pretty good at it. A few charlies, but no mikes. Actually no mikes or deltas the whole match. A first for me!! I ended up placing 11/16 and 59.6%, an all time high for me (shooting against the same usual shooters). Usually, I would be at an average of 45%.

I did the same thing this time, trying to visualize what I needed to see on certain targets. It was harder for uspsa because of the longer stages, so some of the time I wasn't seeing what I should have been. On one of the stages I missed a small steel at about 20 yds, and I know I wasn't focused on the sights. I also looked at a couple targets after I shot them. I've been trying to break that habit!! At one point I also stopped moving to reload and then moved. I really need to work on movement, especially being done reloading on my 2nd step. I'm getting somewhat decent at reloading, but then when I do it moving to a position it kinda falls apart. I will work on this alot in the next week!

I also ordered my sights and can't wait to get the factory sights off of here!! I ordered the warren sevigny competition with serrated fs. I just realized how long this post is..am I rambling?

Edited April 29, 2011 by Jimgabelbauer

[Jimgabelbauer]

Dry fired today, worked on Drills from the Anderson book for a little over an hour. Practiced mostly without a timer, working on keeping it smooth. Also worked on some movement drills, reloading and moving. Idpa match tomorrow.

[Jimgabelbauer]

Monday- my sights came! Had them installed today. Shot idpa match, did good on three out of four stages. The stage I did bad on had 8 targets set up pretty far apart, fairly evenly spaced. The whole array was about a 120 degree circle, and targets were about 20-25 yards away. I was supposed to shoot one round on each, reload go back and shoot one on each in the opposite direction. I started shooting two on each. Oops! My mistake was not visualizing/paying enough attention. I seem to mess up more with this kind of stuff on easy stages than harder ones. I've learned my lesson now though. Don't underestimate seemingly easy stages!! 

Tuesday- dry fired 1hr 15 min. Anderson drills 1-24 3 min ea. and Stoegers 15 min plan. No timer just practiced being smooth and seeing what I need to. Also ran a mile and a half.

Wednesday dryfired 40 minutes, mainly working on transitions, reloads, box movement. Live fire practice: went to local outdoor range and put up a blank sheet of paper the size of the A zone. Worked on recoil control/while getting good hits in the a zone. 100 rds.

[Jimgabelbauer]

Thursday- dryfired 45 minutes. Spent half the time on a few drills with a timer trying to reduce par times. Got the Burkett reload drill down .1 lower. Worked more on drill 8, and got it down to 9.3. then I set up a mini course in my house and ran through it a bunch of times focusing on different things.

 uspsa

I think I've decided for now that I'm going to focus on uspsa. Instead of shooting idpa once a week, I'm going to go out to the range and practice twice instead of once a week. I like shooting both, but uspsa is more fun. I like the freedom as far as stage planning, reloading when you want etc. I also need to get out of the habit of slicing the pie when shooting around cover. 

Friday dry-fired 1hr 15 min, worked on drills from Anderson book. Shot 10 5 shot groups at 25 yards freestyle. My best groups was 4 shots 2.25" (had a flyer). I'm starting to see more consistency in my groups.

[Jimgabelbauer]

Monday- dry fired 45 min. 200 rds live fire worked on recoil control, I've recently noticed that I don't grip the gun firm enough with my left hand. Gripping it a little tighter makes a large difference in how fast the gun comes back on target. While shooting live rounds I'm starting to be able to call my shots. I blink on 1 out of 3 or 4 shots, so I'm not able to see it every time. I also noticed I sometimes flinch or push down on the gun as it's firing, I think it's from gripping the gun too firmly with my rh. When I let up on my grip a little it seemed to go away. I'll definitely work on all these things more in my next live fire session.

Tuesday- dry fired 45 min. Worked on plate rack drills from Anderson book. Hadn't done them before, was fun and different. Tried to be mindful of getting a firmer grip with my left hand.

Wednesday- dry fired 1 hr 15 min. Worked on drills from Anderson, also as a drill for transitions I set up 3 small a-zone sized targets one almost straight to my left one in front and one to the right 180 degrees total. Worked on transitions slowly, then with a par timer.

Also got the video membership on doublealpha.biz over the weekend. Only $35 for 3 months, and there are tons of videos! Watched 2009 production nationals and started watching master class 1, taking notes while watching. 

Tomorrow I have a uspsa match and am sending in my registration for the 2011 pro am! Only a 3 hour drive from where I live. 

[Jimgabelbauer]

Thursday: dry fired half an hour before my uspsa match. Shot pretty good. Things I did well: shot all alphas on a stage

Things to work on: 

-on one stage I had quite a few misses on steel, I need to work on being more patient when shooting it. 

-shooting too fast on ultra close targets. I need to index the gun better and shoot just a little slower. On one stage there were 4 close targets (2 shots each) and I probably had 5 Cs. I really can't afford to give up points on those. 

-transitions, headshots, reloading within 1 or 2 steps of moving

Friday: dry fired for an hour today. Last night I was reading the article on Ben stoegers website comparing a d shooter to a gm and realized when I'm reloading im bringing the gun too low. I started working on this in dry fire with my reloads today. Also, I was watching Saul kirschs DVD and realized on my draw, or reload or coming into a position I'm not bringing the gun up into my line of sight before pushing it out. (so I can aquire the sight picture faster) I think this will be a huge help in reducing my times. I have also been working on shoot, reload on the move, shoot drills and think this will really help me. My reloads are pretty quick when static, but when I go to reload and move I usually don't do it anywhere near as good! I also went to the indoor range and shot groups with 50 rds. I did ok, definitely not my best though.

[Jimgabelbauer]

I haven't posted on here in a while because I've been working a lot, I have still been practicing the same amount. I've been dry firing about an hour a day 5 days a week. I've also been doing some live fire practice once a week shooting groups at 25 yards. I've been shooting a good amount of matches as well. Things have been going better every couple weeks. One thing I've been trying to execute in matches is snapping my eyes to where I need to move and getting set up in shooting positions quicker. I'm also working on not moving my upper body when I'm doing transitions.

I've started reading thinking practical shooting, ordered with winning in mind, and read refinement and repetition. I've also been watching videos on doublealpha.biz, there is so much to learn on there, it's insane!!  Steel match saturday!

[Jimgabelbauer]

I haven't written on here in awhile, I need to make more of an effort to do it more often. Soo much has happened since the last time I wrote in here. I shot the pro am July 17. I ended up shooting open because of it being in the afternoon, and I ended up having to drive there the day of because of work. I used my glock 34 in open. This was my first major match. I was pretty happy because I shot pretty consistently, although I REALLY need to work on accuracy. I placed 82 of 103..2nd in d class  and won a gun. I feel like i shot as well as I was prepared to shoot. It was great having the opportunity to watch the supersquad. It was motivating and a great learning experience!

I finally dont have to work on sunday, so now i am able to shoot the sunday uspsa matches and get classified. I became a member in april, but then had to work every sunday until july. This last weekend I shot my first classifier match. If the classifier calculator is correct, my average of my best four would be 53.6. My highest classifier stage was 60.7%. Good for me. I feel like dry firing 6+ hours a week is paying off! I learned a lot from this classifier match also. I really need to work on strong hand weak hand in live fire, and I've been slacking on working on my precision shooting. I didn't do very well on a couple of classifier stages with sh/wh and difficult shots with no shoots. I still only am able to practice at a square range for now, but it's ok because I feel like I have plenty to work on. I came up with a plan of drills that I can do there. I have a fairly limited amount of ammo available at this point, but can probably manage two 100 round sessions weekly. 

I'll come up with 2 or 3 of these, but heres what I did today:

-20 rounds at 15 yards shooting at a b16 target. 10 rds per target, load one round in magazine at a time. Really work on accuracy. I keep track of my scores in my journal, and compete against myself.

-10 rds strng hand

-10 rds weak hand

-30 rds work on keeping eye(s) open and seeing the sight lift.

-30 rds work on having correct grip, good follow through, recoil control. 

I have been doing this the past couple weeks. I think having a plan and competing with myself is going to make such a big difference in the coming months.

This week I am changing up my dry fire program also. Up till now, I have mostly done drills from the Steve anderson book. These have been going good, but I have been losing a little motivation..so..this week I'm working on Ben stoegers drills. Yesterday I worked on the 15 minute plan and movement B. This week I plan on working my way through all of the drills until I'm comfortable doing them correctly. I found the videos of him doing them really helpful. I would do the drill a couple times and then watch the video of him doing it and get ideas of ways to do things better. Very very  helpful!

[Jimgabelbauer]

Shot the idpa classifier today. Just barely made ssp expert.. 

-Stage 1 38.10 (20) was oddly the part I did worst on..looking back, I think I was trying to play it safe and shoot accurately..but I ended up shooting consciously...im not yet at a point where I can shoot subconsciously a lot..I can tell when I do, and am doing it more and more..something to work on (or not work on..lol) I ended up missing a headshot on the first Mozambique. I pulled it low.. I also ended up missing on a weak hand shot..I know I could have normally shot this stage wayy better..next time I will do much better. 

The second stage I shot in 

29.95 (14). I feel like I did pretty well here, and I did the el prez drill in 8.61..I think that's pretty good for me. In dryfire I can do it in 6.6 if I'm really warmed up on a good day. (can't wait until I can get that membership at the range so I can do tons of live fire practice!!)

Stage 3 51.07 (15) I think I did my best on this one! I improved the most from last time on this..I think my biggest weakness on this stage were my tac reloads. I never practice those because I really only practice for uspsa..I should work on them.  Overall though, I shot very accurately and my 25 yard group practice has helped a lot on this one! I know stoegers 15 min plan with the kneeling helped me a lot on this one!! Thanks Ben!!

I like doing these classifiers because I feel like it gives me an idea of how much ive improved, and motivates me to work even harder.. 

So in summary, my first classifier 2/21/11 (exactly one month after my first match) I shot:

176.02 (86) overall 

1 42.9(5)

2 43.66 (20)

3 89.46 (61) 

And today 8/13/11 (almost 6 months later) I shot

119.12 (49) overall

1 38.10 (20)

2 29.95 (14)

3 51.07 (15)

[Jimgabelbauer]

I have been shooting and practicing a lot still. I have been dry firing around six hours per week. I decided on 9/16 that I would do 10,000 reps of 2 shots on 3 targets, reload, 2 shots on 3 targets by the end of the year. Yesterday (day 27) I reached 2500. Doing this has helped me so much. I do different variations with different distances, different angles, targets closer or wider, surrender, hands at sides, hands on table, etc. I also do with and without par times, I go really slow and smooth about half the time. I use a par time around 40% and 10% of the time I'll push myself to go faster. This has helped my draw, reloads, and especially transitions so much. My transitions are more accurate, the gun goes where I want it to without me trying to make it go there..if that makes sense. I can't wait to see how much smoother I am by the end of the year. During dryfire I also work on box movement, move reload, and shooting on the move. My last uspsa match last sunday I shot pretty good, I was 68% overall (I shot production). The top shooter was A open. I also shot what should be 69% on the classifier eye of the tiger. Monday I shot an Idpa match and was first ssp, 2nd overall. There were 3 other experts. I am looking forward to the factory gun classic at the WAC in December. I don't get to shoot against other production shooters very often, so hopefully I will get to take a beating and learn a lot!

[Jimgabelbauer]

Shot a club match today, worked on shooting close targets quicker with a target focus, went pretty well. Also I was really happy on one stage, I was shooting a four target array and saw a miss in my sights and made it up instantly..Im really beginning to see how important it is to call shots.

[Jimgabelbauer]

I'm ready for my first major USPSA match this weekend. I'm shooting the south Florida sectional match this weekend, the custom gun classic. I'm a production shooter so Im shooting L10 unclassified. There is some really good competition so it should be a great match. I think most of the other shooters are shooting minor also, so it should be basically like production. In the past couple of weeks Ive shot a few matches, focusing on consistency. Im doing a lot better with this, a month or two ago I would shoot 2 stages at 75-85%, 2 at around 60, and then id bomb 1 or 2. Now Ive been shooting 60-75% consistently (against the same group of open shooters). My goal for this match is to plan stages efficiently and have no mental errors. Its amazing how much visualization helps when shooting stages. A couple of months ago I had this habit where on complex stages I would figure out a good plan, but when I shot I would be so focused on the plan that I wouldn't really be paying the necessary attention to the shooting. So I would execute the plan, but shoot bad points! I then started visualizing what I should be seeing while shooting the stage(the gun going off and seeing the sights for both shots). This really helped a lot. I read in one of the threads on here about visualizing the stage like a movie, this makes such a big difference. So now I visualize as much as I can, and then just let everything happen when its time to shoot.

This last week at our local match I shot a good enough score on a classifier to where I might just squeeze my way into B-class. My average should be either 59.9% or 60, depending on the accuracy of the classifier calc. This is very exciting, as I am still in my first year of shooting. It was 6 months ago that I thought it was going to take forever to be a C-class shooter. By the way, I'm not obsessed with classifiers or anything. I just try to shoot them like I would on any other stage, and end up wherever I end up. I know the more I practice the better I'll get. It's just a good feeling to move up!I am really excited about the factory gun match next month and look forward to this weekend as kind of a practice match for it. I'd like to place well, but the most important thing this weekend is that I want to walk away feeling like I shot consistently to my current ability.

My goals for this weekends match are:

-Shoot as many points as possible on each stage. Don't lose visual awareness. ALPHAS

-execute stage plans with minimal mistakes while shooting a lot of alphas

-keep a positive mental attitude the entire match, and shoot tons of alphas

-shoot a consistent, solid match to the best of my current ability. (don't try to go fast to keep up with others) Just shoot alphas

-hit all of the steel on my first shot..

and..

Shoot a lot of ALPHAS!!!

[joedodge]

Great goals Jim and great range log. Weve shot together at wac befor i look forward to shooting the factory gun also. I like how your going about all this as im in a rut and stuck in C class also and trying to improve good stuff.

[Jimgabelbauer]

Thanks Joe, It was good shooting with you guys up there. I'm going to try and make it up there for the fourth Sunday match, and a couple of Tuesday night matches before the factory gun match!

So I shot the sectional yesterday, and did not do very well. I placed 4th overall in L10, I had some mental errors that really hurt. It was my first major USPSA match though, so it was a lot more difficult and accuracy intensive than the matches I'm used to shooting.

The first stage had a texas star, 2 small poppers and 6 paper. From the starting position you could see a small popper and two paper. I drew to the popper, then shot the far paper and started moving while shooting the close paper. Next position you could see two paper, but it was a difficult position to set up into. Reload, then the texas star. I missed 3 times on the last couple plates, i know this lost a lot of time. Then I stepped right and shot steel paper paper. I missed my first shot on the steel. I really need to work on coming into a position on a difficult shot, and having more patience with steel. I know I'm losing a lot of time by missing!

The second stage was the classifier, Area 5 standards. Its 6 shots at 50 yards freestyle, 6 at 25 yds strong hand only, and 6 rounds at 15 yards weak hand only. On the freestyle portion I had 2 mikes, but fired an extra shot . (it was Virginia count) I know I pulled the first shot to the right and the other two to the left. I’ve been slacking on my group shooting and it showed.

Third stage was a good stage for me. There were 2 poppers, 1 small one large. The large one activated a drop turner, swinger and clamshell. I shot the big popper, small popper, drop turner, swinger, and the head on the clamshell. I had all good hits and a good time.

Next, I shot a field course. I had a great time and good hits for the most part, although I had a mike on a target as I was leaving a position. The thing that killed me was that I forgot a target! I think I forgot it because they ran us through one stage and then the next one right after because they were in the same bay. I didn’t have my head in the right place and should’ve walked the stage again.

5th stage was a field course, I had good movement and hits on most targets. I pulled one of the headshots down into a no-shoot, but I called the shot so I made it up. No mike, so I was happy that I called my shot. I had a mike on a target as I was leaving a position also. This is something I really need to work on. I feel like im getting good at entering and leaving positions, but sometimes I leave a fraction of a second too soon and pull the shot.

The next two stages I shot pretty well. I had another mike on one.

The final stage was not very good. I psyched myself out because it was the last stage, and worth a lot of points. I know I shouldn't have let it get to me, but somehow it did. That won't happen again. Anyway, I had a mike because I had 2 shots pass through a barrel (I knew one went to the left, so I made one up. )and another mike. Because I shot a make up shot on that shot and missed a steel and I had to reload to my fourth mag. This cost me a lot of time as well because the last four targets needed to be shot on the move. It probably took me 3 steps to reload. I lost a good amount of time having to do a reload and then shooting standing still.

Even though I was unhappy with how I shot, this match showed me a lot of things I need to work on.

Edited November 15, 2011 by Jimgabelbauer

[Jimgabelbauer]

Not shooting well this weekend has motivated me a lot. I'm going to work very hard over the next month in preparation for the upcoming factory gun match. I have put together a dry fire schedule for the next 3 weeks that I want to stick to. I'll probably post it tomorrow. I also am going to make sure to go out and shoot groups twice a week.

Things to work on during practice:

Shooting on the move at further distances. I want to work on having the gun a little closer when shooting on the move. I've been keeping it where I would when Im shooting standing still. I want to try this out.

Accuracy- shoot groups. I need to be able to keep all of my shots in the a zone of the head box at 15 yards. Id like to be able to keep all of my shots on a standard size piece of computer paper at 50 yards. I have been slacking the last month on getting out and shooting groups. The match this weekend was a very accuracy oriented match. The square range I can practice at does allow you to shoot 50 yards with a pistol, so I really need to work at it.

Trigger- 5+ minutes per day of working on trigger control. Definitely need to work on strong and weak hand trigger control also

Reload move Left Right Forward Backward. Obviously very important for production, and something I've gotten better at. I'd like to get to where I can do a one step reload.

Difficult shots while entering/leaving positions. I need to call my second shot when leaving a position. I can not afford to give up mikes because of this!

I had an idea for dry fire practicing moving forward into another position. When working on dry firing and moving I was working with standard uspsa targets at 12 yards. So I'd shoot the 3 targets, run up and come in shooting on the same target. So Ive improved my ability to come in shooting on a close target. What I did today was set up 1/3 size targets in between and around the standard size ones. So in the starting position I shoot the full size, reload, run about 6 yards forward and come in and shoot the 1/3 size. This helps a lot i think. I also changed it up and came in on the 1/3 size then shot full size then 1/3 etc so I was changing up the way I was focusing on the front sight. This is something I also need to work on. I need to do a drill where I shoot near to far targets and see what I need to see at different distances.

Draw step Left right forward backward

Shooting around barricades, and leaving in the opposite direction I am leaning.

work on Odd starts once a week. just go through all of the ones I can think of.

Staying lower and having a wider stance while shooting and moving in and out of positions.

I have also started training with free weights over the last month, 3 times per week. I started a beginner weight program. The first 2 weeks I was either sore, tired or both. My dry fire has suffered because of it. But now I don't get as sore and actually have more energy to dry fire!

About 3 months ago I started grip training with a cheap sports authority grip trainer, and about a month ago moved up to the coc trainer and now am going to order the #1 and get working with that! I do 5 sec holds most of the time, and when I started I could only do like 5 reps with the cheap one and now I can do like 20 with the number 1! I've seen a great increase in grip strength and I feel so much more solid when shooting, My goal is to be able to close the 2.5. I'll get there!

[Jimgabelbauer]

Woke up, did my weight routine. Then dryfired for 20 minutes working on transitions, draw reloads and trigger control. I've added one of the 1/5 size steel to my dryfire setup, and I am finding I really need to see a lot more from my sights on steel. I really need to make sure when I'm shooting matches that I'm patient and hitting steel in one shot every time. After dryfire I went out to the range and just shot 25 rounds, at 25 yards. I was shooting at a piece of computer paper. I would dryfire as many times as needed to get a perfect trigger pull, then shoot a live round. I ended up pulling a few, but was happy that I called the shots. I'm going to try and make it out to the range a couple times a week and practice with a small amount of ammo 25-50 rounds, and just focus on the quality of practice. I hope to have some time to dryfire tonight. I also saw the classifiers updated, but my newest classifier wasnt entered! 

[Jimgabelbauer]

Shot last night at the WAC, placed 2/46 overall and 1st of 24 in production. Overall I shot pretty good, but I did have 2 mikes that I shouldn't have. I had a breakthrough though, I'm very excited. I think I've reached a new level of awareness.  This was the first match where at multiple times I saw the sight lift from shot to shot throughout a stage. It's hard to explain, in memory I feel like the shooting was in slow motion and I can recall seeing the sight lift and come back down perfectly!  I work on this in practice, but have never seen so much under match conditions. 

[joedodge]

great match jim you were deffinatly on. would have liked to have shot on your sqaud

[Jimgabelbauer]

I actually signed up on your squad but got moved! I'll be there up there Sunday, so I'll have to sign up on your squad.. That stage with the stomp pad was tough.. Did you shoot the dt first? I ended up shooting the dt swinger paper steel, but I think I kinda panicked and lost the front sight after the swinger and got a mike on the far paper..those speed shoot type stages are a weakness for me..

[joedodge]

Ya I went DT swinger steel paper. I find myself shooting not really remembering the sight on those stages im also week on them sometimes it works out sometimes it doesnt. Unfortunatly I wont be out sunday I have to work and couldnt get it off wish I could be there.

[Jimgabelbauer]

Shot the factory gun classic match on dec 10. Placed 2/14 in C and 11/84 overall. Overall I shot pretty consistent, I had a few really good stages and a couple not so great stages. I had 2 mike and 1 no shoot total. I also noticed in the scores you can look up what the percentage of points you shot was. This match I was at 80.8 with penalties. My next major match I have a goal to shoot 90%. That seems like the right balance of speed and accuracy, looking at a lot of top GM performances in major matches.

[Jimgabelbauer]

Got my B card in production in the mail yesterday. I am now working on getting ready for the florida open. I've started dryfiring with ipsc classic targets, and I made a few target arrays with no shoots in different positions so I can work on difficult shots. Today I also spent 2 hours with the entering/exiting positions part of Saul kirsch's master class 2 DVD.. I'll be shooting a club match Thursday, and I'm going to work on incorporating some of these techniques.

My training right now looks something like this:

start out with Anderson drills 1-20 10x each

6 reload 6 drills at various distances/angles. Working up close (1/3 size tgt 5 ft) on speeding up transitions, while staying relaxed.

Shooting 6 reload 6 at 20 ft with head shots to work on not overswinging and getting my transitions to be more precise.

Then I'll set up something like a small stage and work on shooting a couple arrays and moving to another position and shooting again.

I've also been working on moving around barricades, shooting on the move, exiting hard leans, and shoot reload move.

Work on trigger control daily, freestyle, strong hand weak hand

I am not able to do all of this in one day, but over two days I'll work on all of these things. If I feel to sore (usually once a week) I just rest.